Forgotten Years
by Happyness
Summary: This fic is set three years after the events of threads. Sam married Shanahan. Jack dumped agent Kerry Johnson, Jack got transferred. Sam is still working at the SGC. They meet again on a gloomy Sunday.


Forgotten Years.

Disclaimer: I do not own them, they're not mine. It's all fake. But you know.. in an alternate reality in some alternate reality I do own them! It's possible!

Pairing: Sam/Pete, Sam/Jack

Rating: G – Angst

A/N: This fic is set three years after the events of threads. Sam married Shanahan. Jack dumped agent Kerry Johnson, Jack got transferred. Sam is still working at the SGC. They meet again on a gloomy Sunday.

_----_

_I've lived in this place and I know all the faces  
Each one is different but they're always the same  
They mean me no harm but it's time that I face it  
They'll never allow me to change  
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong_

---

We met again on a gloomy Sunday. It was a Sunday to remember and yet one similair to this very day.

Just like today rain poured from the skies as though it wept for a reason but could not reveal why, for dark clouds swallowed its words. Although the clouds seemed thick and grey, a weak sunbeam penetrated its way through the dark mass.

I hadn't seen her in three years, three long years. In which I thought about those moments all those summers ago, almost everyday.

My life had changed and so had hers. She'd married Shanahan and they seemed happy to me. I'd even attended her wedding for the briefest of moments. She'd looked stunning in the most expensive, most wonderful wedding dress I'd ever seen.

Unfortunately, life had turned out differently for me. I had ended my relationship with agent Kerry Johnson. I'd figured out just in time that this young woman, who miraculously accepted me for whom I am, did not deserve a person like me. But she knew. She'd known all along. And although her eyes had been glassed over with sorrow and although I had not told her the reason why. She had simply nodded and told me she understood.

Now three years later, there she stood the reason of my break up. And even after all those years my feelings hadn't changed one bit. It felt the same. I pushed my sunglasses higher up my nose. Hoping she hadn't caught sight of me. Unfortunately her husband had and as he pointed his finger in my direction and waved he took her by her arm and dragged her across the street towards me, almost causing her to drop her umbrella as they went.

"Jack! What a surprise." He sincerely spoke and gripped my hand to shake it. As though he and I had been the best of friends for years. I uncomfortably shook his hand. Scrubbing my hand along my jeans after he'd released it. Sam caught the motion and her eyes sparkled knowingly.

"How long has it been?" He ecstatically pondered out loud, not waiting for me to answer the question he turned towards his wife.

"Look, Sam it's Jack."

_As if. _I sarcastically thought. Rolling my eyes, grateful for being able to hide them behind my sunglasses.

"Good to see you, Sir." Sam smiled at me. Then Stretched out her hand, waiting for me to shake it. I took it and shook it briefly. Her touch felt familiar and for a moment it had brought me back to long gone memories. I shook it off, masking it behind carefully constructed walls of fake confidence. That's what three years of loneliness do to a man, I bitterly thought.

I looked her in the eye, but regretted the act the moment I saw her blue ones look back at me. There she was again, after all those years and right away her eyes brought me back to days of hurt, regret but most of all, back to the days in which I'd felt true and ever lasting happiness. Or so I'd thought. Saving the world on a daily basis hadn't been a piece of cake. But I'd had my team. The people I cared most about. I'd had them, and now I did not anymore.

I took in a deep breath and turned my attention back to Shanahan.

"What brings you two to town?" I stiffly asked him, at the same time taking of my sunglasses, needing something to fumble with as my patience's was growing thin.

"We're visiting a few of Sam's old relatives. I thought it to be high time we did that again. After all, we've been married for over three years now and I still don't know all of Sam's relatives, can you believe that?" He laughingly finished, slapping me with one hand on my shoulder as if encouraging me to say something amusing about such a silly thing.

I let out a fake laugh, that didn't go unnoticed by Sam. she knew it was fake. she knew everything about me. Which made this unplanned reunion even more unpleasant.

Fortunately Shanahan didn't and good-humoured went on talking.

"Sam just has this enormous family, lots of cousins, a brother, uncles, aunts. As most of us do of course. So one day I said to Sam, I said. We need to get more acquainted to your side of the family. So here we are, visiting one of Sam's favourite uncles."

"I see." I managed to answer. Regretting my polite inquiring question and wondering if this conversation would ever draw to an end.

Sam had probably sensed my eagerness to leave and cut Shanahan off the moment he'd re-opened his mouth again.

"Listen darling, let's not bore General O'Neill with such tedious details about my family, I'm sure he has better things to do."

"Oh, yeah, right." Shanahan turned to me. "I'm so sorry. Sam is right. I haven't even asked how you've been. How is that girlfriend of yours doing, you're probably married by now aren't you? Sam, told me all about you two."

I rubbed my forehead with my hand, not knowing whether I should tell them a lie, say that she was doing fine, that we were doing fine.

I decided to tell the truth, knowing that in this town they would eventually figure it out anyway.

"We're not together anymore." Odd enough it felt like a relieve saying those words, which in turn came to them as a shock.

Sam's eyes were glued to mine. First disbelief, then shock and finally she'd also managed to hide the rest of her emotions away behind walls she'd constructed herself. Like her, I knew everything about her too.

Shanahan was the first one to say something after a few moments of deafening silence.

"You're serious? But you'd said it had seemed pretty serious, Sam."

Sam tore her eyes away from mine. Glassily focussing them on her husband.

"Yes." She simply answered him.

The fake smile and unreal reply didn't go unnoticed by me and like me Shanahan had noticed it too.

He looked confused at his wife and then at me. Suspicion showing in his eyes. As if alarm bells went off in his head, Shanahan decided that the conversation had lasted long enough.

"Yes, well." He looked at the skies above noticing that it had started to pour more urgently.

"I think we'd better get going before we all get soaked to the bone. It was nice meeting you again, Jack. You should visit us sometime."

I nodded my head. Understanding the meaning behind Shanahan's words. Being polite was something he'd always been better at doing than me.

"Yes, I might."

He shook my hand again, a way of saying goodbye, but his handshake was more firmer this time, uptight and concerned. It didn't surprise me. I knew Shanahan wasn't stupid, or well for as far stupid could go, anyway. He knew, he'd known all this time, but he'd been patient and he'd gotten what he'd wanted. He'd gotten what I still wanted.

He took Sam's hand. She bit me a soft goodbye and they both took off. I wrapped my coat more securely around me and put my umbrella higher above my head. I watched them disappear around a corner but I stayed put for a couple moments longer. I let out a long sigh and walked back to my own empty house, finally letting the memories of all those forgotten years flood my mind.


End file.
